How do you make a work schedule? Full Guide

There’s a moment every business owner faces that no one really warns you about. It’s not hiring your first employee or making your first sale. It’s looking at an empty weekly work schedule and realizing, Oh no. I’m in charge of making this work for everyone.

Employee work schedules aren't just lines on a spreadsheet or boxes in a scheduling app. They dictate how your team members show up, how your labor costs add up, and, most importantly, how your employees feel when they walk through the door.

We’ve all seen it, haven’t we? Schedules thrown together at the last minute. No advance notice. Overtime piling up because no one bothered to plan ahead. Personal commitments and employee availability ignored. That’s not an employee scheduling process, it’s chaos. And chaos drives your people out the door.

So, what’s the fix? How can you create a work schedule that keeps your business running smoothly while respecting your employees’ personal commitments? How do you balance business needs with fairness, especially when managing night shifts, shift swaps, and time-off requests? How do you use tools like employee scheduling software to assign shifts, build trust and reduce employee turnover?

We're about to answer all these questions and more...

1. Analyse your business needs ahead of time 

What does analyzing your business needs actually look like? Well, you need to start with the basics and ask yourself: When do you need the most coverage? Is your morning shift slammed, or does the real action pick up after lunch? What about weekends and holidays?

Now, take a hard look at your labor budget. How many hours can you realistically assign? How many staff members do you realistically need? And don’t forget about the human element. Your team isn’t made up of robots. You may have full-timers, part-timers, shift workers, and everyone in between, each with their own needs and availability.

When you nail this step, you set the stage for everything else. And part of that is understanding the types of work schedules for your business. So let's elaborate on what are:

Types of work schedule for your business

Different businesses (and different employees) thrive under different structures. Let’s break it down:

Full-time

In the US, this usually means 40 hours a week, Monday through Friday. 9 to 5. But remember, full-time doesn’t mean the same everywhere. In places like France, there are different definitions of what “full-time” actually means, and those definitions matter. So if you’re a business with teams across the globe, make sure you’re not just assuming one size fits all.

Part-time

Part-time schedules are ideal for roles that don’t require a full 40-hour commitment, or for people who just don’t want to work full-time. However, when you’re scheduling part-timers, you've got to be careful. They might only be available during certain hours, so take the time to understand their schedules. No one likes last-minute shifts.

Flex

This is the modern way of doing business. Employees can work from anywhere and at any time, as long as they hit their hours and get the job done. This type of schedule is brilliant for retention. People want flexible schedules. In fact, a recent survey found that 76% of employees said they'd be more loyal to a business if it provided flexible working arrangements. A flex-time schedule might look like this: core hours between 10 am and 2 pm, and the rest is up to your team members. If you’re working 8 hours a day, you’ve met your requirement.

2-2,3-3,2-3

Now, if you’re running an industry where things don’t stop (we're talking healthcare, retail, customer service, or hospitality) you’re probably familiar with the 2-2, 3-2, 2-3 schedule. This one’s for your hourly, seasonal, and shift workers, people who need to be available 24/7. It’s a rotating cycle where employees work 12-hour shifts, alternating between two days on, two days off, three days on, and so on.

4-3-3 

In this schedule, employees work four days on, followed by three days off, and then work another three days, followed by another three days off. It’s a kind of hybrid schedule, great for industries that need coverage while still giving employees significant time off.

2. Figure out staffing availability 

Start by asking your employees for their availability, and don’t just make this a one-time thing. Set up a system (whether it’s a shared document or a scheduling app) where team members can input their hours and update it regularly.

Employees don’t work in a vacuum. Life happens. They’ll need time off, might have changing availability week to week, and you’ll want to account for things like doctor’s appointments, family obligations, and that time they’re picking up their kids from soccer practice.

Now, when you get this information, use it. Don’t just let it sit there as a list of times, they’re data points that can be used to actually create a functional schedule. If you know, for example, that one employee can only work in the afternoon on Mondays and Wednesdays, don’t try to schedule them for a morning shift.

Our point is: track availability, don’t assume it. You’ll save time, you’ll keep employees happier, and you’ll avoid common scheduling errors and keep everyone on the same page.

3. List out those employees who want overtime 

Overtime. Some of your employees are going to want it. Not all, but there will be those who want to put in extra hours for that glorious overtime pay.

Ask upfront who’s willing to take on more hours. Be clear about what overtime might look like. Is it based on business needs, or do you have a budget for overtime that you’re sticking to? You don’t want to make the mistake of offering overtime on a whim only to realize later that your labor costs are shooting through the roof. Also, don’t assume employees are always available to work overtime. It’s easy to burn people out if they’re constantly being asked to work more, so make it clear from the start when and why overtime is offered.

4. Consider regulations that could affect your planning

If you’re running a business, you’ve got to know the rules and regulations. We're talking local, state, and federal. They cover everything from mandatory breaks, overtime pay, holiday pay, and how many hours someone can legally work in a day before you owe them double-time. Yes, double-time, not just extra pay but twice the normal rate in some cases.

That’s not the case everywhere though so research the laws specific to where your business operates. New York Labor Law, for example, requires employers to pay one and a half times your regular rate of pay (instead of your regular rate) for hours worked after 40 in a workweek.

Then you've got regulations around predictive scheduling. These laws require you to give employees advance notice of their hours so that you can schedule employees fairly. Change their shift last minute? You might have to pay extra for that.

Now, although this makes things a little tricker for you, these rules exist to make life more predictable for workers. They also come with record-keeping requirements. If your employee scheduling practices are messy, you could find yourself in legal trouble fast.

Workers have rights. Learn them, follow them, and make sure every person involved in scheduling knows what’s required.

5. Create your schedule

You’ve got the information you need. Who’s available? Who’s up for some overtime? Who needs specific shifts off? Now it’s time to put it all together.

Templates are great here. You can find a weekly work schedule template or, if you want to plan ahead even further, you can find a monthly work schedule template online easily. This will give you a clear framework to organize shifts, breaks, and coverage, making the whole process faster and easier to manage.

Templates also help you avoid common mistakes like double-booking or missing key legal requirements, such as overtime and mandatory breaks. Once you’ve filled it out, use scheduling software to keep it flexible and accessible.

6. Review all the shifts scheduled 

Before you hit that publish button, take a step back and review the entire schedule. Check for balance. Are the shifts fairly distributed? Does everyone get their required breaks? Have you accounted for overtime, availability, and any special requests?

This is also your chance to catch potential issues, like back-to-back shifts that could leave someone exhausted or missing coverage during peak hours.

7. Share the schedule with your employees effectively

In many places, you’re legally required to let employees know their shifts at least 7 to 14 days in advance. This gives your team the stability they need to plan their lives—and keeps you compliant with the law.

Yes, schedules can change. That’s reality. But the goal should always be to publish your schedule early. When employees know what to expect, they’re less stressed, and your business runs more smoothly.

8. Be ready to adapt to any changes in your rota

Here’s the truth: no schedule survives contact with reality. People call out. Plans shift. Things happen.

You have to be ready to roll with it. Build flexibility into your rota and leave space for emergencies. Have a plan for covering those “I can’t make it” texts.

Have some contingency plans and some rules in place for this. Who gets called first? What’s the process for swapping shifts? Maybe you state that someone can only change the rotating schedule if they find someone willing to trade shifts with them.

9. Use a smart employee scheduling software for easy access

Let’s talk about working smarter, not harder—because no one has time for outdated, clunky scheduling. With Epos Now’s POS software and the Workforce integration, you can completely transform how you manage your team.

Workforce automates the boring, time-consuming stuff so you can focus on growing your business and delivering amazing customer experiences. No more hours lost on manual scheduling or chasing payroll errors. And the features? They’re amazing:

• Smart, insight-driven rotas: Workforce.com analyzes last week’s data to build optimized employee schedules for your team.
• Custom business intelligence reports: Want to know what’s really happening in your business? These reports break it all down, giving you the insights you need to make smarter decisions. Like staff performance, how much someone has worked, or how many times that person’s been late.
• Live wage insights: With real-time tracking, you can ensure your team is always paid accurately.
• Seamless payroll integration: Workforce.com syncs directly with your payroll system, automating the process so you never have to think about it again.

This integration is available for Epos Now users in the UK and the US.